Joe Bonamassa – You & Me (Provogue).

You & Me opens with the controlled blues of Charley Patton’s High Water Everywhere but Joe adds power on his vocal and guitar where necessary to provide a class opener. Bridge To Better Days is high-end blues/rock with a guitar solo to match the best. Just crank up the volume and listen to the master. The pace is slowed down for Asking Around For You, a Southern blues that has me running out of superlatives. He has all the attributes, a strong voice and peerless guitar; the guy will be a superstar. He maintains the slower pace for So Many Roads, a powerful true blues song in an album that producer Kevin Shirley said would have “more of a rock sound” and “wanted Joe to showcase his depth and versatility; his vocals as well as his incredible guitar playing”. The album has achieved its objectives. I Don’t Believe is a swinging Don Robey blues that shows Joe can play any style with ease.

Tamp ‘Em Up Solid is a classic song and it’s given the Bonamassa treatment but, for the first time on the album, played acoustically. This understated version is a real treat. Joe gives his voice a rest for the instrumental Django where he showcases all of his tricks. Tea For One is a Jimmy Page and Robert Plant song and Joe matches them both for mastery and passion. Palm Trees, Helicopters And Gasoline is acoustic finger picking extraordinaire and Sonny Boy Williamson’s Your Funeral And My Trial is given a rock treatment, so much so that Sonny Boy may struggle to recognise it. The album finishes with another of Joe’s big rock numbers, Torn Down. This could be played in small clubs or large stadia. The man is sheer class. Superb.

www.jbonamassa.com

Copyright David Blue 2006.